The Whispering City
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Winner of an English PEN 'PEN Translates!' award.
Barcelona, 1952: General Franco's fascist government is at the height of its oppressive powers, casting a black shadow across the city. When wealthy socialite Mariona Sobrerroca is found dead in her mansion in the exclusive Tibidabo district, the police scramble to seize control of the investigation. Ana Martí Noguer, an eager young journalist, is surprised to be assigned this important story, shadowing Inspector Isidro Castro.
But Ana soon realises that a bundle of strange letters unearthed at the scene point to a sequence of events dramatically different from the official version. She enlists the help of her cousin Beatriz, a scholar, and what begins as an intriguing puzzle opens up a series of revelations that implicate the regime's most influential figures. The two women have placed themselves in mortal danger. As the conspiracy unfolds, Ana's courage and Beatriz's wits will be their only weapons against the city's corrupt and murderous elite.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The murder of Barcelona socialite Mariona Sobrerroca propels this accomplished debut from the pseudonymous Moliner (the writing team of Rosa Ribas and Sabine Hofmann), set in 1952. Insp. Isidro Castro, of the Criminal Investigation Brigade, takes charge of the inquiry, but he must answer to Commissioner Goyanes, his superior from the Social Investigation Brigade, the Franco regime's political force. The powers that be want the murder of this prominent woman solved ("In a country where peace and order supposedly reigned, local crimes weren't supposed to bring that image into question"). Meanwhile, reporter Ana Mart realizes that there's more to the story than the police think or want to think. She enlists her relative Beatriz Noguer, a literary scholar whose Communist sympathies make Beatriz unemployable in Barcelona, to do some literary sleuthing into letters connected with the crime. While too much exposition slows the narrative, the oppressive atmosphere of Franco's Spain is palpable and frightening.
